Eight Days a Week
by ShirouHokuto
Summary: Every shinobi has a weak point - and Iruka's is orphans. AU where Iruka adopts all the orphans (and at least one not-so-orphan); eventual background Zabuza/Iruka, T for some language and a little action later on, primarily fluff.
1. Leaf

**Author's Note: **_I promise I have not abandoned "(Nice Dream)," really! I just, er, sort of got dared to write this and so I have been (with a break for Marathon fic, obviously) because I am weak against dares involving hugs for sad ninja kids. No set update schedule, but the next chapter is finished, the third is well in progress, and I have a plan for everything else, so please bear with me._

* * *

**1. Leaf**

No one knew exactly when the cracks in Iruka had started to appear. He was a cheerful, friendly, open sort of person, but open in that way common among shinobi where the emotions that showed easily were not necessarily the ones felt, and he did work with children, a position that involved nearly as much lying, subterfuge, and manipulation as the most delicate intelligence work. For all anyone knew, it might have begun the day Uzumaki Naruto came to school with a hole in his shirt the size of a fist and said he didn't have the money for a new one. Or the day Iruka had waited with Rock Lee at the gate to the Academy for five hours before an ANBU in a boar mask had shown up to tell Lee his mother had been killed on a mission to Iwa, the body unrecoverable. Or perhaps earlier, when Iruka had survived the Kyuubi's attack while his parents died along with Lee's father and so many others, or even earlier than that, when Iruka had helped his mother in the tents of the field medics during the war by bringing water to wounded genin and chuunin no older than himself.

Everyone, however, knew that Iruka's breaking point came on the day Uchiha Sasuke showed up to class with dark hollows under his eyes, a bandage around one arm, and a note from the Hokage excusing his absence of the last week due to the tragic loss of his family and need to relocate to a single apartment.

Iruka read the note very thoroughly, and with every word his expressive face grew more and more still. As Sasuke began to slouch towards his seat, Iruka looked up from the note and said, "Thank you for bringing this in, Sasuke, but I'd still like to talk to you after school, all right?"

Sasuke glared at him, but nodded. From his seat at the back of the class Naruto scowled, muttering something under his breath, and Iruka said, "Actually, I'd like to talk to you after school too, Naruto."

"Aww, man..."

"And no whining about it!" Iruka smiled broadly at the rest of the class. "Now, let's get started - today we're going to work on -"

Of all the children in this particular Academy class, Nara Shikamaru was likely the most observant, though he rarely put the skill to much use; he still couldn't help but notice that there was something forced about Iruka's smile, which was out of the ordinary for their teacher. He passed this observation along to his best friend Chouji, who whispered, "Maybe he's just worried about Sasuke-kun - I heard all the other Uchiha got killed, it's pretty awful."

"Hn. Maybe."

True to his word, Iruka kept both Naruto and Sasuke after school, and as Shikamaru was heading out the door with Chouji he said, "Shikamaru, could you go to the next class and get a student named Rock Lee for me? I need to talk to him as well. Thank you, I really appreciate it."

Shikamaru resented the extra work, but disobeying Iruka would be even more troublesome, so he promised to meet Chouji at the candy store later and went to fetch Lee from the next classroom over.

No one but those present in the room at the time ever knew exactly what Iruka said to the three orphans that afternoon. Shikamaru was much too lazy and generally solitary to gossip, and it wasn't until several weeks later that he even thought to tell Chouji the little snippet of conversation he had overheard before opening the classroom door for Lee.

"- going to eat?"

"... I can make rice balls."

"For every single meal?"

"There's instant ramen, too, yanno! I'm real good at instant ramen!"

"Those are _not_ proper - oh, Lee, there you are! Thank you again, Shikamaru, you can go now. And don't slack off on your homework!"

As Shikamaru had shut the door behind him, he had heard Iruka start to ask Lee something about his family, but he couldn't muster the energy to try and listen in any further. Eavesdropping on arguments like that was simply too much trouble.

Chouji's only outward reaction to this reported conversation was an expression of deep sympathy for both Sasuke and Naruto, who had clearly been living on diets of unhealthy barbecue deprivation.

* * *

The teller at the civilian bank branch closest to Iruka's apartment knew Iruka by sight and name, but she had never seen the three children who followed him in ten minutes before the bank was due to close. One hung back, sullen and glaring at everything in the nearly deserted building; the other two were squabbling cheerfully over some childish dispute she couldn't quite follow.

"Shimada-san, I'm sorry to come in so late," Iruka said, with an embarrassed smile, "but I'm afraid I need to close out my accounts - Naruto, quit poking Lee!"

"I'm sorry to hear that, Iruka-san," Shimada said, with a touch of genuine regret. She'd always looked forward to Iruka-san's visits; he was the least weird of the shinobi who banked with them, always polite and patient and willing to chat a little on slow days. "Is there a problem with our services?"

"No, no! I just - I'm going to need a lot of cash, I'm afraid. I've always been happy with - yes, Naruto?"

"I wanna get my money out, too!" The blond kid beamed up at Shimada, and she found herself smiling back; he had an adorably infectious smile, despite the odd scratches on his face. "We're gonna have an adventure, so I need my money, yanno, just in case!"

"What money, dumbass?" the sullen boy said.

"I got some! 'S an allowance or something. I'm real good at saving it!"

The third boy, who had strangely round eyes and glossy black hair in a long braid, said hesitantly, "Iruka-sensei, may I also withdraw my money?"

"Are you sure you want to do that, Lee?" Iruka asked, looking down at him.

"Yes!" Lee said, his voice strengthening. "It isn't much, but my mother left me all the money she had, and I want to use it to help support my new family!"

"That - that's very thoughtful of you," Iruka said, "though I hope it won't be necessary..." He turned back to Shimada. "It seems like we'll all be making withdrawals - I hope it isn't too much trouble."

"Not at all, Iruka-san," she said, squashing all thoughts of the paperwork she'd have to do before she could go home that night. "Why don't we start with your accounts?"

As they talked, Naruto grinned at Lee and said, "Hey, you're pretty cool after all, fuzzy-eyebrows!"

"You - really think so?"

"Yeah! That was a cool thing to say, yanno?"

The sullen boy hmphed, but after Lee and Naruto had gotten their turns at scrawling on the forms that would close out their accounts and received their ryo - a pitifully small amount for Naruto, a decent sum for Lee - he too stepped up to withdraw some money from an account that had so many zeroes in it Shimada had trouble breathing for a moment. "But I'm not closing mine," he told her with a ferocious scowl. "I just need some for now."

"All right, ah - Sasuke-kun," she said, glancing down at the neat signature, and handed him his ryo as quickly as possible. She didn't know what such an unpleasant child was doing with Iruka-san and the other perfectly nice boys.

As Iruka herded them to the door, telling Naruto not now, he could count it up _later_, Shimada called after him, "Good luck, Iruka-san!"

He waved back at her, and with the memory of his warm smile lingering in her mind, she resigned herself to a little overtime.

* * *

When Iruka, Sasuke, Naruto, and Lee failed to appear at the Academy the next morning, the first places to be investigated were their apartments. Sasuke's apartment was as empty and bare as if it had never been lived in, even for the day he had spent in it; Naruto's contained only a few bits of worn or too-small clothing, a half-drunk carton of expired milk in the refrigerator, and the lingering smell of old ramen; Lee's was nearly as empty as Sasuke's, save for a battered training dummy and a broken hairbrush.

In Iruka's apartment, the investigating jounin found a slightly worn forehead protector and a note on the low table in the living room, the latter addressed to the Hokage:

_I, Umino Iruka, formally resign from my position as a teacher at the Konoha Ninja Academy, and from the ranks of the active shinobi. I am also taking custody of the orphans Rock Lee, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto, and I will raise, train, and provide for them to the best of my ability. Although I have decided to leave Konoha to give us all a fresh start, I swear that none of us will ever raise a hand to harm the village or the Land of Fire, or to aid its enemies. Please let all my students know that I'll miss them very much, but this is the course I've decided to take, and I hope that they will all work hard to become great shinobi of the Leaf._

In a slightly shakier hand was written, _I never wanted to disappoint you, Hokage-sama. I just can't let these children grow up as alone as I did. I'm sorry, and I hope you can understand; I will always be grateful to you, and Konoha will always be my home, but I have to do this._

The village council and the Hokage argued behind closed doors for a day and a half, while the on-duty ANBU made idle bets as to how long it would take to track down a mediocre chuunin teacher hauling around three kids. Almost all of them were shocked when the Hokage announced that while Umino Iruka would be greatly missed, his decision to leave Konoha would be respected and he would not be marked down as a missing-nin. None of them, however, were surprised when the Hokage added that in the interest of safety - Iruka and the children's, of course - it would be for the best if no word of this situation escaped the village. Ever. And particularly not the disappearance of either Uzumaki Naruto or Uchiha Sasuke, due to reasons which unfortunately could not be disclosed at the present time.

Intra-village gossip could not be stopped, however, and there was talk for weeks about how Iruka had always seemed so nice, such a hard-working young man, who would have thought he had it in him? Really, young shinobi these days, no wonder he'd never made jounin... Lee, sadly, was little missed, as few people beyond Iruka had ever taken note of him; the loss of Naruto caused more than one discreet but relieved drinking party, as various chuunin and ANBU members celebrated never having to clean up after his pranks again, and a few for less mentionable reasons. As for Sasuke, there was a brief mourning period among the girls of his class, but the new teacher assigned to the class kept them all too busy for much more than the occasional sigh.

"It's still a shame, though," Yamanaka Ino was overheard whispering to her new best friend, Haruno Sakura, "that Sasuke was the only cool guy in class - everyone else is, like, a real loser!"

"I - I guess..."

"Well, we'll just have to stick together and be the coolest people here, right?" Ino said, and she was rewarded with Sakura's brightest smile, which drove all nascent thoughts of boys right out of Ino's head.

Iruka, of course, remained completely unaware of the general amnesty, which was just as well; not an hour after the Hokage's announcement that Iruka and the children were to be left alone, in a secret room deep with ANBU headquarters, Shimura Danzo was giving very different orders to a group of people who were not supposed to exist.

"I want them all found and brought back to Konoha as soon as possible," he said. "Without attracting that fool Sarutobi's attention. And Uchiha Sasuke most of all."


	2. Fire and Water

**Author's Note: **_Sorry for the long wait! It's been a hard month, but I hope I'll be back in the groove soon._

* * *

**2. Fire and Water**

Iruka had never made a conscious plan, but as soon as he and the kids had gotten out of Konoha, it seemed like one sprang full-formed into his mind, and for lack of any better options he followed it.

They walked as far as they could that first night; it wasn't as far as Iruka would have liked, but he didn't want to risk pushing the kids too hard. At least they were tired enough that they didn't complain at a cold dinner of leftover noodles Iruka had taken from his apartment - getting serious traveling supplies was high on Iruka's to-do list, but he hadn't wanted to raise too much suspicion before leaving - and fell asleep with a minimum of fussing and fighting over who got the softest bit of ground. Iruka didn't sleep at all. Someone had to keep watch, and it was not going to be one of the kids.

The next day Iruka got them up bright and early - with a certain amount of complaining from Naruto - and they kept going, heading west and slightly south towards the Land of Water. It was a foolish hope, perhaps, but Konoha's relationship with Kirigakure was a little rocky at present, and Iruka hoped that it would be the last direction that a search team would check. He hadn't seen or sensed any hints of pursuit so far, but that was no guarantee; still, he set a slower pace than he had the night before, and didn't make more than a token effort to keep Naruto and Lee quiet. He had thought of Lee as a rather shy child, but in the company of Naruto Lee was proving to be quite energetic. Iruka would have to find some way to channel that energy, but at the moment he was just relieved that they were both getting along well and too excited to be out of Konoha on an adventure to question Iruka's plans. Sasuke barely spoke unless necessary, which worried Iruka, but that was just one of many things he couldn't do anything about until they got farther from Konoha.

Around mid-day, when Iruka let them stop for a break and a quick lunch - rice balls, which he had helped Sasuke make before they left Konoha - Naruto said, "Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei! Are you gonna keep teaching us stuff so we can be great ninja?"

"Ah, well - I don't suppose I'd be any good at teaching you to be civilians..." Iruka thought fast; he hadn't planned on doing any teaching till they'd found a place to settle down, but if Naruto was willing to learn for once, then Iruka might as well take advantage of the opportunity.

"I'm sure Iruka-sensei could be an excellent civilian teacher if he wanted to be!" Lee said; sitting a little apart from the rest of them, Sasuke snorted, and earned dirty looks from both Lee and Naruto.

"It's kind of you to say so, Lee," Iruka said, "but I think for now we'll stick with regular shinobi training. As long as you three can listen and walk at the same time."

They could, though not very well in Naruto's case, and in no time Iruka had developed a schedule: physical exercises in the morning before they started walking, a break for lunch and whatever math or history he could get Naruto to pay attention to, then ninjutsu practice and theory in the afternoon as they kept walking. Sasuke trained with a frightening ferocity and no patience for Naruto's playing around; Lee, though technically more advanced than both of the younger boys, worked hard but seemed to have no ability to perform ninjutsu or genjutsu whatsoever, which put him at a disadvantage compared to the other two. Iruka didn't want to give up on teaching Lee ninjutsu too fast, but he decided that he might try to concentrate on the boy's taijutsu for the moment and come up with a plan for working on his ninjutsu later, when they weren't constantly on the move.

On the third day out from Konoha, the small amount of food Iruka had been able to pack for them ran out. He had anticipated this, and when they stopped for the evening it was within running distance of a village; he found a decent-sized hollow in a tree with good cover around it, sat the kids down, and said, "All right, guys, I'm going to get us some fresh supplies. I should be back pretty soon, but while I'm gone, I need you all to stay put and stay quiet, and don't come out unless you see me give you the hand-sign for leaf. Sasuke -" Sasuke looked up from his intense glaring at the ground. "- you're in charge until I get back, so make sure everyone does what I said."

"Hey, how come _he_ gets to be in charge? He's a jerk! No fair!"

"Because I said so, that's why!" Iruka took a deep breath and said more calmly, "It'll be your turn to be in charge next time, okay, Naruto? This is only until I get back."

"Fiiiiiiiiiine..." Naruto kicked his heels against the ground. "At least you're gonna bring us back some ramen, right? Right?"

"We'll see," Iruka said, making an executive decision that instant ramen no longer counted as actual ramen. If he could find a good ramen stall, on the other hand... "Remember, don't come out till I give you the hand-sign! And Sasuke, this is a serious responsibility, so no abusing your power."

Sasuke didn't quite smile, but Iruka was willing to take any change in his expression as a good sign and smiled at him before performing a quick transformation and leaving.

He was as quick as he could be, but it still took him a good two hours to find everything he wanted without spending too much, to check the posted notices and news for anything about them, and to return to the camp; he hadn't found their names in any of the notices, but that had only convinced him that there must be a covert search going on, and the entire way back he'd been terrified that he was running towards an empty tree and an ANBU trap. The dead silence when he returned sent his heart into his throat until he remembered the signal. He dropped the transformation and signed _leaf_, and before he could take another step Naruto and Lee had pounced, clamoring to know what he'd gotten. Sasuke appeared only a moment behind them, a brief flicker of relief crossing his face before it was replaced with his usual glower.

"Iruka-sensei, Iruka-sensei, you got ramen right? I can totally smell it!" Naruto said, bouncing up and down.

In answer, Iruka held up one of the shopping bags, from which the rich smell of fresh ramen drifted. "The best I could find," he said, grinning, and both Lee and Naruto cheered, while Sasuke made a face. He ate every bite of the bowl that Iruka had brought him, though.

* * *

After that, Iruka tried to make sure they stopped near a town every other day, leaving Naruto, Lee, and Sasuke in charge in turns while he disguised himself with different transformations to get fresh supplies and sometimes takeout ramen - not too often, though, to Naruto's dismay. It would never have taken him so long to reach the Land of Water traveling alone, but with the kids he had to set a slower pace, especially with his attempts at on-the-go teaching; trying to stay near roads and villages without getting so close they could be easily spotted, as well as avoiding the usual routes covered by patrols from Konoha, meant that their trail zigged and zagged across the Land of Fire, adding several miles to their journey. The leisurely pace at least gave him time to consider whether he really wanted to cross the border. Konoha was unlikely to chase them into another country and risk upsetting the fragile peace with Kirigakure, but by the same token, neither Kiri nor the Land of Water were likely to welcome them with open arms; still, if they kept to the forests and stayed out of the way of the country's shinobi... That question was not the only thing that kept Iruka awake at nights, but it was the most urgent.

The evening after that first trip to a village, Iruka was patiently going over the transformation jutsu with Naruto and Lee while Sasuke, who already had the basic principles down, watched over the vegetable stew that Iruka had gotten started earlier. As usual, Naruto was fidgety and distracted, more interested in the food than the lesson; Lee was listening fiercely, but when he focused and made the seals for the transformation, there was no reaction at all, not even a brief flare of chakra.

Lee's whole face fell, wrenching at Iruka's heart. "It's all right, Lee," he said, "plenty of people have trouble with this technique at first. Let's just start again with collecting your chakra and -"

"I can't, Iruka-sensei," said Lee, his voice terribly small. "I - I just can't do those techniques, no matter how hard I try. I'm sorry."

"What kind of ninja can't do ninjutsu?" Sasuke said, and Lee flushed.

"Hey, I bet fuzzy-eyebrows can be an _awesome_ ninja!" Naruto glared furiously at Sasuke. "We're both gonna great ninja, just wait and see! Way greater than you!"

"Naruto, I wish you'd forget that nickname - but you're right," Iruka said. He put a hand on Lee's shoulder. "Lee, ninjutsu may never be your strong point, but that's not the only way to be a good ninja. Whether you learn these techniques or not, as long as you keep working hard, I know that you'll become an excellent shinobi."

"Do you really think so?" Lee asked, his eyes wide and slightly wobbly.

"I don't just think it - I know it," said Iruka. "You're still one of my students, after all! In a way... So there's no giving up, you got that?"

"Yes, sensei!"

Sasuke slapped Naruto's hand away from the pot as he tried to sneak a spoonful of stew and said, "Whatever. Just don't hold me back."

"There's no way!" Lee jumped up and flung his arms out dramatically. "I'm going to work extra hard and become a great ninja, even if I can only use taijutsu! I promise!"

"Yeah, that's the spirit, fuzzy-eyebrows!"

"Naruto, what did I just tell you about that name?"

The next night, after they had eaten and Iruka had dunked them all in the stream nearby to get them as clean as he could reasonably manage under the circumstances, he noticed that Lee was having some trouble re-braiding his hair. "Do you want me to help with that?" he offered, moved by old memories of his mother brushing his hair after a bath and him trying to return the favor. "I'm pretty sure I remember how to do a decent braid..."

"Actually, sensei, I -" Lee's face reddened. "I want to wear my hair like yours!"

Iruka covered his instinctive laugh with a cough and said, "Well, still, why don't you come over here and I'll help you? It's pretty simple."

Lee's hair was deceptively thick and turned out to have an exceptionally strong wave to it as it dried; Iruka had a bit of a struggle brushing it, and the resulting ponytail he forced it into looked more like an octopus than a ponytail. There was still something deeply satisfying in the simple act of brushing out the tangles in Lee's hair (along with a few bits of damp weed from the stream), and the look on Lee's face when he saw his reflection in the water, the octopus-tail sticking out in all directions behind his head, was worth any amount of trouble.

"It's _perfect_," Lee said, and suddenly he was - not so much hugging Iruka, but throwing himself full-body at Iruka and clinging to him like a limpet. "Thank you, sensei! Thank you for everything!"

Iruka hugged him back, and a small tensed part of himself that he had hardly been aware of relaxed. "It's my pleasure," he said, smiling. "Though I guess I'm not really your teacher anymore, so you guys shouldn't be calling me 'sensei' - just Iruka is fine." He looked up and over Lee's head and caught Naruto staring at them with an envious expression; feeling a little mischievous, he said, "Oi, Naruto, what's the matter? Do you want me to brush your hair, too?"

"Blech, no way! I can do it myself, yanno!" Naruto stuck his tongue out and scrubbed vigorously at his already-dry hair until Iruka snagged him with one hand, dragged him back over to the stream, and set about brushing Naruto's hair. Naruto wriggled at first and made a few token protests, but his giant grin belied his grumpy noises. "I don't want a ponytail, though," he said, "that's totally not my style!"

"Your hair's not long enough for one, anyway," Iruka said, wondering how hair as short as Naruto's had managed to get so many tangles. When he had gotten out as many as he could, he ran his fingers through it so it would spike up properly the way Naruto liked it, and Naruto beamed up at him.

"That wasn't so bad, Iruka-sen- I mean, Iruka," he said, and then he got a mischievous look of his own. "Hey, you oughtta do Sasuke's next! Then maybe his head won't look like a duck's butt, yanno."

"Shut up, loser," Sasuke snapped; he had been sitting apart from the rest of them and pointedly ignoring their conversation up to that point, but now he glared daggers at Naruto.

"I'm just sayin', if you don't wanna look like a duck's butt..."

"Naruto, that's enough," Iruka said. "Sasuke, I'd be happy to -"

"Leave me alone!" Sasuke grabbed his pack and stalked off to sit farther downstream, his back to them, though he stayed within Iruka's line of sight.

"Geez, what's his problem, anyway?" Naruto said, scowling. "I was just jokin' around, yanno - he didn't have to be like that."

Iruka dug his elbow into the top of Naruto's head. "Do you remember anything I say? He just lost his family - of course he's not going to be interested in fooling around."

"Oh. Yeah..." Naruto hmmed to himself, thinking it over, and then said, "Sorry, Iruka-sensei, I forgot. Hey, jerkface!" he yelled. "I'm sorry I made fun of your stupid hair!"

Sasuke's shoulders hunched, and he failed to turn around.

"Naruto-kun, that's not really a very good apology," Lee said. "It should be more - not insulting?"

"Well, but his hair _is_ stupid..."

Iruka let them argue it out for a few minutes before convincing them to sleep; after they were both snoring, Sasuke edged his way back a little closer to the camp and resettled himself, falling asleep not long after. Iruka stayed up to keep watch, as usual, and to think.

Sometime soon, he would really have to talk with Sasuke.

* * *

Sasuke hated everything.

He hated walking and walking without a real destination. He hated sleeping on the ground and washing up in streams or ponds. He hated ramen, although he ate it anyway whenever Iruka brought it back because he hated getting dragged into fights with Naruto about it even more. He hated the endless, boring forest that never seemed to change. He hated Naruto for being loud and obnoxious and stupid, and he hated Lee for being loud and stupid and bad at ninjutsu. He hated having to stop and hide whenever Iruka thought he heard something suspicious, and he hated being left behind with the two losers whenever Iruka went shopping, especially when one of them was "in charge," as if either Lee or Naruto could possibly handle any real trouble.

He felt like he ought to hate Iruka, but somehow he couldn't manage it. He needed to save some hatred for his - for a certain person, anyway. All the other hatreds paled in comparison to that one.

He was preoccupied with nursing that hatred as he threw kunai at the makeshift target Iruka had set up for them to practice on and barely noticed when Lee and Naruto were called away from the target. He just kept throwing and retrieving the blunted practice kunai, his mind's eye aiming at another, far-away target, until Iruka caught his hand and said, "It's getting dark - I think it's time to take a break, don't you?"

Sasuke blinked and realized that it had gotten dark, almost too dark to see the target. He also finally became fully aware that Naruto and Lee were gone; he looked around and saw that they were a safe distance away, messing around with something by the tiny campfire that was as large as Iruka would allow.

"I asked them to start dinner," Iruka said, following Sasuke's gaze, "which I hope was a better idea than it seems like right now... I wanted a chance to talk to you without them hanging around for once." He settled down on a mossy log, and after a moment Sasuke sat at the opposite end, his eyes on the ground.

Iruka sighed. "I know I've mostly been paying attention to Naruto and Lee these last few days," he said, "because - well, because they need a lot of attention, really. And they actually want it... That's not really like you, though, right?"

Sasuke kept staring at the leaf-covered earth. He didn't like looking Iruka in the face lately; even if Naruto and Lee were too dumb to notice that Iruka stayed up long after they went to sleep and got up well before they did, Sasuke had, and the hollows developing under Iruka's eyes reminded him too much of that person.

"I guess we've already talked about the most important things," Iruka said. "And people - everyone has to handle their problems in their own way. I don't want to make you talk if you don't want to, or anything like that, but I do want you to know that if there's anything you need, I'm here. If you want to talk, or well - anything. Hm, like an older brother, I guess?"

"No!" _I'll always be there, like an obstacle for you to get over..._ "Not like - you can't -" Sasuke's hands gripped the edge of his shirt so tightly his knuckles had gone white. He couldn't explain the instinctive denial without talking about everything, and he couldn't - not yet. Maybe never. Not to Iruka.

"Okay, okay, definitely not like an older brother." Iruka had gradually moved so he was sitting right next to Sasuke instead of at the log's other end, and he carefully tugged Sasuke's shirt out of his hands. "Maybe - well, maybe not anything like family, but I'll still always be here." He got a little quieter as he said, "I know it's hard right now, and it could be a long time before it gets any easier, but you don't have to deal with it alone. You've got me, and Naruto and Lee if you'd stop avoiding them all the time. And wherever they are, your parents will always be watching you, and if they're anything like mine -" Iruka's voice caught slightly. "- anything at all, I think they'd want to see you smiling and living your life with all your strength."

Sasuke thought that his parents would probably rather see him kill that person, but he could only think it at a distance, like everything that wasn't hate. "I'm fine," he muttered. "I don't need anything." He _didn't_. He didn't need anything except to get stronger and hate - and hate -

Then he felt Iruka's hand on his head, warm and rough, and the distance he'd been clinging to so hard was gone as if it had never existed. "I want to go back," he said, his stupid voice cracking, but _back_ wasn't back to school or to Konoha, it wasn't even back to the empty Uchiha compound, but all the way back to a sunlit kitchen and his father in a police uniform and his mother smiling at his report card and his brother promising to train with him later, back to before everything went wrong, before Itachi turned out to be nothing but a liar. He was tired of hate and tired of the distance between him and everything else and just tired, all the time. "I want to go _back_!"

He was crying now and he didn't want to be but he couldn't help it, and he wished Iruka would just go away and leave him alone. Instead Iruka swept him up into a hug and suddenly Sasuke was crying silently into Iruka's shirt, soaking it. Iruka didn't seem to care. "Ssh, it's okay," he said, and Sasuke felt his shoulders heave a little like he'd started crying too; he stroked Sasuke's hair and said, "We can't go back. We just have to keep going forward, the best that we can."

But Sasuke couldn't. There was no going back, but there was no forward either; there was nothing but darkness.

_Foolish little brother... If you want to kill me - hate me, and run!_

(He hadn't seen Itachi crying. He couldn't have. Not after what Itachi had done.)

Finally the tears stopped, and he pushed at Iruka's chest. Iruka let him go, and if he'd been crying, it didn't show; he just smiled at Sasuke and said, "Let's get back to Naruto and Lee and make sure they made something we can actually eat, okay?"

For a wonder, they had, though Sasuke wasn't about to admit it. But he ate their stupid dinner, and when Naruto punched him in the shoulder and said, "See, I can cook great!" he only shrugged it off and didn't tell Naruto to shut up. He still didn't like either of them, but he couldn't help a treacherous thought that maybe he didn't exactly hate them, either.

* * *

Miyagi had been smuggling people between the peninsula and the islands of the Land of Water since the days of the Second Mizukage, and she was widely (if covertly) known as the best in the business. Control of the peninsula had gone back and forth between Water and Fire for years before the current boundaries had been set; Miyagi considered herself loyal to neither country, but only to the tiny fishing village where she had been born and lived all her life. She was no ninja, but in the interests of protecting her home, she had gotten very, very good at spotting shinobi and other sources of potential trouble with no more than a quick look and a few seemingly innocuous questions, and in all her many years of illicit sailing she hadn't been caught once.

One look at the exhausted young man with three slightly ragged and obviously unrelated kids in tow, and she figured she'd at least hear him out. He bargained well, too; didn't pay the absurdly overinflated price she quoted him at first, but didn't act rushed or get too desperate while trying to haggle her down. Eventually she let him talk her down to just under her usual price for carrying four people - she had a soft spot for men with facial scars, what could she say - and herded the lot aboard her boat as soon as the moon was up. No sense wasting time when it was a good night to sail, with fog on the water for cover and a clear sky overhead. She'd already decided which of the kids she would ask her questions; the man was shinobi and therefore right out, the ponytail kid was too straightforward, and the sulky-looking one would be suspicious. The blond kid with a troublemaker's face who ran all over her boat asking what everything was - that one was perfect.

Miyagi cast off and bided her time.

The young man made a valiant effort at staying awake, she'd give him that much, but it was a calm night, the rocking of the boat smooth and gentle, and he'd clearly been pushing himself. He was out cold within the hour. Ponytail had sprawled out beside him and fallen asleep practically the minute they'd boarded; the suspicious kid was sitting hunched up on his other side with one of those funny-shaped shinobi knives in hand and a wary look.

After a while the blond kid got tired of exploring the boat and joined her at the back as she rowed. Great. She let him fidget a while, struggling with silence, as one of the last things the young man had said had been a warning not to bother her, but a kid like that could never stay quiet for long. Soon enough he burst out with, "Hey, auntie, do you really like rowing people around?"

"It's a living," she said. "You like it?"

"Yeah, it looks kinda cool, I guess! You get to meet lots of people and go lots of places..." He squinted into the fog. "I dunno how you know where you're going, though."

"I could do this run in my sleep if I thought the weather'd hold - practice, kid," she said, "that's all it takes." And casually, as if she didn't care about getting an answer, she asked, "You boys going to the hidden village?"

"Dunno," the kid said. "We're just gonna look around, yanno? Iruka-sen- Iruka says he's looking for the right place, but so far all we've looked at is forests, and I don't wanna live in a forest."

Miyagi relaxed at the lack of deception in the boy's voice. Not that she'd really thought this Iruka - if that was his real name - had been up to anything, but it was good to have her instincts confirmed. She'd just had the boat repainted; she would have hated to scuttle it so soon, especially since she couldn't swim as well as she used to. "That's nice, kid."

"I wouldn't mind living in Kiri, I guess - hey, auntie, did you ever go there? Is it okay? Do they have good ramen and stuff?"

"Sorry, never been." If there was one thing she didn't need, it was to attract the attention of the Bloody Mist by sailing up to the damn doorstep.

"Aww, man..." The kid started to drum his heels on the bottom of the boat, but stopped when Miyagi gave him a sharp look. Noise like that would carry for miles. After a few minutes of silence, he said, "I wish Iruka-sensei was up, I bet he knows all about Kiri. He knows lots of stuff! I dunno why he's all tired suddenly..."

Miyagi would bet her boat that young man hadn't slept more than two hours in the last two days, and probably not much more before that. "You let him rest, now," she said. "I expect he's got a lot on his mind with the three of you to look after."

"Yeah, I guess," he said, and this time stopped himself before he started kicking the boat. "It's kinda funny, yanno - I used to think he didn't like me, 'cause he was all mean and yelled at me a lot like everyone else. But after a while he didn't yell so much and he got me ramen sometimes, and then he was like, 'Hey, I'm gonna take care of you and Lee and Sasuke because you don't have parents and we'll all go somewhere cool,' and I was like, 'yeah!' 'Cause just hearing that - that he wanted to look after me - that felt so great! Though I dunno why that jerk Sasuke even bothered coming..."

A low "Shut up, dumbass" floated back to them from the prow, and the kid stuck his tongue out in the general direction of the others.

"Well, sounds to me like you got real lucky, kid," Miyagi said. Not that it was any of her damn business, but so what, she was old and she could take five minutes to care a bit if she wanted. "You tell him to take care if you get to Kiri, all right? It's no place for nice boys like yourselves."

"Huh? Why not?"

His last word turned into a huge yawn, and Miyagi tsked. "Get along back to your friends now and get some sleep yourself," she said. "It's a long ways yet, I'll wake you all when we get there."

"Okay - thanks for the ride, auntie!" He gave her a big grin ruined by another yawn, and she shooed him off towards the prow, where he promptly curled up on the bottom of the boat at Iruka's feet and started snoring.

Miyagi snorted and kept rowing. Honestly. She _was_ getting soft in her old age.

* * *

It was a beautiful night on a road near Kirigakure, and Momochi Zabuza didn't like it.

He couldn't put a finger on a reason for his unease, which just made it worse. Sure, he was still wasn't as far from Kiri as he wanted to be, but the road was deserted, the moon was bright, the air was cool and as clear as it ever got around a place called Mist - if you had to be on the run from Yagura's fucking hunter-nin, it was the perfect night for it. He still had an itch in his nerves that wouldn't let up, and Haku's pet bunny making a break for freedom was damn near the last straw. He almost told Haku not to bother chasing after it, but what the hell, it couldn't take Haku that long to catch the stupid thing, and he let the boy run into the scrubby forest while he waited on the road.

Two minutes of waiting later, he was about ready to go grab Haku and get another damn rabbit sometime they weren't practically within hearing range of Kirigakure when he heard voices. Only one of them was Haku's, and his hand went to his sword.

A moment later Haku came out of the forest with empty arms, saying, "It's all right, Zabuza-san, they're not from Kiri..."

Zabuza didn't have to ask who the hell Haku meant, because right after Haku came a gaggle of brats and a tanned man with a scar across his nose and an embarrassed smile. One of the brats, a stupid-faced blond one, was hugging the rabbit and grinning like a lunatic; he waved at Zabuza with one hand and the rabbit made another bid to escape, but another of the kids with black hair in a wild ponytail grabbed it. The first brat didn't seem to notice. "Hey! Are you Haku-chan's friend?" he said. "Wow, you got a super-huge sword! Cool! Are you from Kiri? Can you do any awesome moves with that sword? Did you ever -"

"Naruto, this really isn't the time," the tanned man said, and he gave Zabuza a slight bow. "Hi, I'm Iruka - sorry for intruding, we just happened to run into your - er - into Haku-kun and helped him catch his pet." His smile had faded as soon as he got a good look at Zabuza. Well, at least he wasn't _completely_ stupid.

"It was very kind of them," Haku said, gently rescuing the rabbit from Ponytail's too-tight grip before it choked to death. "Thank you again, Lee-kun, Naruto-kun."

"It was our pleasure!" Ponytail said, and the third brat, silent up to that point, snorted. Probably the smartest one in the group, that one; he'd been hanging back and glaring at Zabuza the whole time, while the other two were practically falling over each other to babble at Haku.

"I'm sorry again for bothering you, ah - Zabuza-san, was it?" said Iruka, with another, falser smile, "but the kids did seem to hit it off... Mine are getting a bit tired of each other's company, I think."

"Great," Zabuza growled. "Glad we could help. Now -"

"Excuse me," a soft voice said, "but are any of you from Kirigakure?"

Zabuza whipped around and saw yet another fucking brat, this one with white hair in a funny zigzag part and two red dots over his eyebrows and an oddly-shaped kunai that looked like bone. If there were gods, they had to be messing with him. He was about to tell the kid to fuck off when Iruka said, "I'm afraid we aren't, at least, though perhaps Zabuza-san could help." He crouched down, resting on his heels. "I'm Iruka, what's your name?"

"Kimimaro."

"The hell did you say? I'm not -"

"What are you doing out here by yourself, Kimimaro-kun?" Iruka asked, as Zabuza considered just cutting his head off and getting the hell out of there.

"I'm lost," Kimimaro said. "I'm supposed to be fighting with everyone else, but I can't find Kirigakure - this is the first time I've been outside."

Zabuza saw the faintest shift in Iruka's pleasant expression, and a chill settled into whatever bloody, ragged thing he used for a soul. He had seen that look on the faces of a whole lot of shinobi right before they said they'd die rather than talk or give up their comrades or whatever; they had, usually at Zabuza's hands. "I see," Iruka said. "Well, I don't think we'll be going that way after all - why don't you come with us for now?"

"But I have to go to Kirigakure," Kimimaro said, with a little frown, though Zabuza could tell that this battle was already on its way to being lost. "If I don't fight, then I'm not useful, and I'll have to go back to my cell..." And there it went. All the other kids had shut up to watch the showdown, including Haku, and Zabuza didn't know why he hadn't just left already, except the whole situation was too ridiculous to believe.

Iruka's smile could have frozen over a hot spring. "Then I really think you should come with us, Kimimaro-kun," he said. "I'm sure you could be very helpful, and even if you aren't, there's absolutely no reason you should go back to a - a cell."

"Yeah, yeah, you can totally come with us!" The blond brat jumped on Iruka's back and nearly knocked him over. "Can you cook? Do you like ramen? I love ramen, it's the best, yanno! Do you wanna be a ninja too? 'Cause I -"

"Naruto, get _off_! What do you think, Kimimaro-kun?"

"I -" Kimimaro hesitated as he looked at all of them, even Zabuza, who was definitely not getting involved in this crap.

"I would be very happy if you were to join us!" Ponytail said. "Making new friends is always a welcome experience!"

The smart one shrugged and said "Whatever," confirming Zabuza's earlier impression of him.

"It's up to you, of course," said Iruka, "but we really would be happy to have you travel with us, and it wouldn't be any trouble - well, not any more trouble than this bunch already is."

"Hey, I'm not trouble! Iruka-sen- Iruka, I'm not trouble! Just 'cause I drew on Sasuke's face that one time -"

"I'll come," Kimimaro said. "If - you're sure..."

"We're absolutely sure." Iruka peeled the blond kid off his back and stood up, his smile turning real again. "Welcome to the family, Kimimaro." The two noisy brats cheered and swarmed over Kimimaro, and Zabuza decided that was all the sap he could take for the night. For the rest of his life, actually.

"C'mon, Haku," he said, "we're going." Haku was at his side immediately, and he was preparing to flash-step them both away when Iruka said, "Wait, Zabuza-san!"

"What?"

"Why don't we come with you?"

Zabuza stared at him and wondered if that scar on Iruka's face had addled his brains. It would explain the whole night so far pretty well. "Why the hell would I let you do that?"

"Well, like I said, I think my kids are getting a little sick of each other, and they really seem to like Haku," Iruka said. "And I expect you know the area much better than I do - we could use a guide."

"Absolutely not," Zabuza said flatly. "One, I don't give a crap, two, I don't work for free, and three - three -"

Haku was looking up at him with the same look he'd used when he had asked to go catch the rabbit. "They do seem like nice people," he said. "If - if it was only for a little while, Zabuza-san - it couldn't hurt, could it?"

"I don't fucking _care_!" Hell, this was going nowhere fast; it was time to stop talking and just go. "Put the damn rabbit back in its cage and we're -"

New voices echoed from up the road, and in an instant the entire group had vanished into the scant cover of the forest. In further support of Zabuza's theory that the gods were fucking with him, he ended up behind the same bush as Iruka, who was quickly making the hand-signs for a genjutsu.

A Mist ANBU appeared on the road a moment later, looking around, but they didn't seem to notice Iruka's illusion or the kids' half-assed attempts to hide. "Any sign of them?" someone out of sight called.

"Nah, looks like we got 'em all!" the ANBU yelled back. "Nothing but dirt out here! Let's go already, I need a damn drink."

The ANBU vanished, but Iruka kept up the illusion of an empty forest for a full minute before releasing it. "I wasn't quite finished," he said quietly, as the brats started crawling out of their hiding places and whispering to each other. "I think that you don't want to be caught around here any more than we do, Momochi Zabuza."

Zabuza's hand twitched towards his sword again.

"No one will be looking for you with us," Iruka continued, ignoring the twitch. "And it might not be much, but I have enough to pay your traveling expenses, if you're that desperate for money."

"I'm not -"

"I can also pay you!" Ponytail volunteered. "Iruka-san has not yet let me help pay for anything, so I still have a lot!"

"Me too, me too! Um, maybe not as much as Lee, though. Hey, if you come with us can you show me how to use your sword? I wanna learn how to use one, yanno!"

"Zabuza-san..." Haku was giving him that damned pathetic look again, and Kimimaro was watching him as if he expected Zabuza to roll over for Iruka the same way he had, and Ponytail was pulling out a wallet shaped like a damned tiger, and Zabuza was about ready to explode. This had to be a joke, all of it, and he'd never had much of a sense of humor.

"We shouldn't stay here much longer," Iruka said briskly, "the ANBU might come back - kids, stop pestering Zabuza-san. Kimimaro, is there anything you need to go get before we leave? Extra clothes? Anything?"

"No, Iruka-sama."

"Er, just Iruka is fine - all right, then. Well, Zabuza-san? Are you and Haku-kun coming?"

Under the bandages wrapped around his face, Zabuza ground his teeth.

* * *

From a safe distance, Orochimaru watched the Mist shinobi pile up the bodies of the Kaguya dead, and a slight frown of distaste crossed his face. He had heard rumors that the Kaguya's lost bloodline limit had resurfaced, and he had so hoped he might be able to get his hands on it; the clan's doomed attack on Kirigakure had certainly destroyed any chance of that. Such a waste of his time.

The Mist shinobi laughed and exchanged crude jokes as they worked. Fools. They doubtless had no idea of the possibilities they had wiped out. Ah, well. He should leave them to their clean-up and find whatever hole the Kaguya had been hiding in; there might yet be some information of use to glean from what they had left behind, and there was no sense in wasting the entirety of his trip.

Orochimaru vanished, if only he had known it, in the direction opposite to the one taken by the small group of five children and two adults that contained what he sought.


End file.
